[pure-silver] Re: what causes graininess?

DEAR SHANNON,
        Eric's suggestion below is excellent.  Whenever I do portraits of
women who might be concerned about lines in their face, in addition to
hiring the best possible make up artist, I use a partial diffusion
technique.  First I buy some sheer black pantyhose which, of course, gets
smiles and inquisitive looks from the sales women.  I then make a 6"
diameter hoop with a long handle out of a wire clothes hanger.  I stretch
the stocking rather tightly over the hoop and sew it around the edges,
cutting it so there is only one layer.  During my main exposure I use the
stocking anywhere from 5% to 20% of the time depending on how much softening
I want.  I place it about 1/3 of the distance below the lens to the paper
and keep it moving during the exposure.  Of course the black stocking not
only diffuses the image forming light, it also blocks some so there must be
an exposure increase to compensate, easily determined with test strips.  You
may find that it softens the contrast a bit more than you want so you can
easily increase the contrast (assuming you are using VC paper) slightly.
What this does is soften both the grain, facial lines, and imperfections
while leaving what appears to be a "sharp" image.  Gives lovely tones as
well.  Remember, diffusing during shooting spreads the highlights into the
shadows.  Diffusing while printing spreads the shadows into the highlights. 
                CHEERS!
                        BOB

-----Original Message-----
From: pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of EJ Neilsen
Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2007 12:12 PM
To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [pure-silver] Re: what causes graininess?

Are you using the same lens in the enlargers? You may just be experiencing
the difference between a lenses that has a sharper image passing through to
the paper. If you want to soften that grain up a touch but still have a good
sharp image, play with a very small amount of exposure with a diffusion
filter or some kind such as a fog filter to disperse the light for a very
small amount of time; sharp under printing with a soft glow. This can work
well with portrait type images best. 

Eric Neilsen Photography
4101 Commerce Street
Suite 9
Dallas, TX 75226
http://e.neilsen.home.att.net
http://ericneilsenphotography.com
Skype ejprinter
> -----Original Message-----
> From: pure-silver-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:pure-silver-
> bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Richard Knoppow
> Sent: Saturday, October 20, 2007 4:42 PM
> To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [pure-silver] Re: what causes graininess?
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Shannon Stoney" <shannonstoney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Saturday, October 20, 2007 11:19 AM
> Subject: [pure-silver] what causes graininess?
> 
> 
> >I was enlarging some negatives today (using the
> >ever-reliable Omega) and the prints look surprisingly
> >grainy.  The negatives are medium format and the prints are
> >only 7" square.  The ones I enlarged with the Devere before
> >it broke don't seem as grainy.  Does a condenser enlarger
> >make things look grainier?  What are the other factors?
> >These negatives are HP5+ with DDX 1+4, processed around 11
> >minutes.  (The longer processing time is due to the fact
> >that the diffusion head lengthens the scale on the Ilford
> >Warm Tone paper to about 1.2.)
> >
> > I don't like grain and I am thinking of switching to FP4+
> > more, the only problem being that in the Hassie you have
> > to shoot (hand-held) at 1/125 of a second, so there has to
> > be a lot of light for FP4+ to work. I have a flash but I
> > don't much like using it.
> >
> > I thought that DDX might be the problem, but I tried ID-11
> > and didn't see any difference. I think DDX is a fairly
> > fine grain developer, but I would be interested in what
> > other people think.
> >
> > --shannon
> >
>     Its possible the condenser is showing more grain than
> the diffusion head. Normally, this is compensated for by the
> lower contrast of the paper needed. A partially diffusing
> condenser system such as used in the Omega will increase
> appearant contrast by about one paper grade.
>     I have an Arista cold light head for my Omega D2V but
> seldom use it. I got it orginally because I thought the
> condenser head was not providing even illumination, in fact
> it turned out that the enlarger just needed to be aligned. I
> worked with the diffusion head a bit but went back to the
> original condenser system. I could see little, if any,
> difference in the prints made with the two.
>     I use this enlarger for everything from 35mm to 4x5. I
> suspect it my be that the increased edge sharpness that
> condensers can give is showing up the grain more.
> 
> ---
> Richard Knoppow
> Los Angeles, CA, USA
> dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 
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